The music was soft and leisurely, soothing to the ears. The ambient lights changed colors with every passing second.
Pressed up against Rinisa’s prickly gold dress, Jehan wondered if this was the climax of some surreal dream sequence. If it was, it certainly would be the first time a lucid dream had been this exciting.
Moving slowly through the dance floor, his hands around Rinisa’s slender waist, Jehan turned his face into her perfectly coiffed, fragrant hair. Her perfume smelled fantastic.
Rinisa was stiff and awkward in his arms. He smiled. He hadn’t even said anything, and it was already working.
He might just win this round yet.
“The game’s over, you know,” he whispered sweetly into her ear, before twirling her around as the music picked up.
She hissed, stepping on his toe with one pointed stiletto heel.
He yelped and spun her away from himself, before pulling her back in. “Not in the mood to play nice today, are you?
“Well, it doesn’t matter.” He smiled serenely, swaying with the mesmerizing melodies created by the smartly dressed band of musicians. “Afreen’s chatting up Sokolov and his friends as we speak. It won’t be long before Maralana’s top one-percent has a detailed understanding of what exactly Amven is, what it can be used for, and what kind of potential it has for the future.
“And of course, having been an eyewitness at the La Fantome Club, I’m sure Afreen will be able to paint an...accurate picture of what it’s like to be under the influence of Amven. Not to mention what it was used for by your little brother and sister-in-law.
“The business community will be free to draw its own conclusions from that. They’re intelligent men and women, wouldn’t you agree? How long do you think it’ll take them to figure out exactly what Amven will be used for, if Maganti ever managed to get his claws on it?”
Rinisa laughed. “What? You really think they’ll believe the stories of a girl nobody’s ever heard of, over the word of the president of Maralana, one of the most powerful men in the world? How deluded do you have to be to believe that?” Jehan didn’t miss the slight tremor in her voice. “She’ll never be able to prove anything, and you know it.”
“Deluded?” Jehan chuckled, leading her into a quick pirouette around the dance floor. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that. Why do you think Afreen ended up at the La Fantome in the first place? You don’t think that was a coincidence, do you?
“The nonprofit she works for, Pragati, had been looking into the activities of the club for weeks before she was taken. And since the La Fantome was shut down, the central government – including the NIA – has extended its full cooperation to Pragati.
“They’ve spent months investigating every case of abduction and false imprisonment involving your club. By now, they’ve got piles upon piles of paperwork tracking exactly where the money flowed and who was funding the whole operation.”
As he spoke, Jehan watched the blood drain from Rinisa’s face. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, even as beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.
He smiled, meeting Ruqaiya’s eyes over Rinisa’s shoulder. She gave him a slight nod, her face grim.
The plan was in motion. And success was the only option.
As they circled the dance floor, Rinisa stiffened in his arms. “If you think some two-bit nonprofit can take us down–”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“A two-bit nonprofit and every resource I can bring to bear on this case.” His tone was light, friendly. “Including the prototype Amven samples that you tried to blackmail the Shian girl into stealing from our lab.”
“What’re you–”
“I’m a lot of things, Ms. Rayeek. Quite a few of them not very nice. But ‘stupid’ isn’t one of those things.
“Did you really think you could play us against each other time and time again and we wouldn’t notice? I’ve known for months now, and Rito never had those samples for more than a few minutes.”
“She said–” Rinisa’s voice was strangled, her eyes wide.
“She lied. Because I told her to. Something you would’ve realized if you weren’t so cocksure of your own genius.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “And the blood samples from the kids rescued from the La Fantome? The NIA still has those reports.
“What do you think they’ll find when they match that prototype against those reports? And how reluctant do you think either of the Shians would be, to testify against you in a court of law?”
“What the hell do you want?” Rinisa gritted out, her voice shrill.
“I want you to consider, my dear.” He spun her on the spot, then pulled her close. “President Maganti is an influential man. He may or may not escape this little debacle unscathed.
“But you? I’ll personally see to it that you live to regret the day you decided to cross me. And this little conspiracy of yours? It’ll be the scandal of the century, when news of it is finally exposed.
“And it’s not like you’re short of enemies, is it?” He smirked. “Hardly surprising, with a personality like that. I’m sure there’re many people in Naijan and Maralana who’d go out of their way to fan those flames until it’s a media firestorm.
“Tell me, who’ll stand up for you when that happens? Who’ll go out of their way to protect you? It’s not as though you’re popular in Eraon. Personally, I think Afreen would make a far better deputy CM. She’s certainly popular with the masses. And she’s Zanyar, so she’ll be the perfect successor to Henna Sameen.
“Honestly, I can’t think of a more suitable chief minister for Eraon than her, can you?”
Rinisa was all but shaking in his arms.
Jehan bit his lip, looking over at Ruqaiya. She’d better hold up her end of the plan.
“As for your family’s money,” he continued, remembering to move with the music. “What’s left of it after you’ve settled all the legal fees and paid all your overpriced attorneys will be confiscated to compensate the victims rescued from the La Fantome club.
“Badal may have protected you from the repercussions of your crimes all these years, but he isn’t here anymore. You saw to that, didn’t you? No more friends in high places, no more political protection to be had.”
He shook his head in mock sympathy. “And I’ll personally ensure that anyone who tries to help you will be investigated by the NIA and incarcerated the moment we find so much as a single incident of tax evasion. So, how many people do you think would be willing to stick their necks out for your sake?”
“When Grigori finds out what you’ve–”
“Maganti?” Jehan laughed, spinning her once again, keeping her off balance. “You really think he’ll help you? Come on, Ms. Rayeek. Even you’re not as stupid as that. He’ll cut you loose and set you adrift the moment you become more of a liability than an asset, and you know that as well as I do. Don’t you remember what happened to Badal?
“Maganti doesn’t have friends, Rinisa. Can I call you Rinisa?” He frowned, nodded. “I think I’ll call you Rinisa. Well anyway, as I was saying, President Maganti doesn’t have friends. He has tools in his toolbox. And you might be his favorite hammer for the time-being. But that’s the thing about tools, isn’t it?
“Sooner or later, they get old. They outlive their usefulness. Sooner or later, even your favorites have to be replaced.
“After all, you should know that better than anyone. You helped him get rid of the last one when it became too squeaky to be useful, didn’t you?” He looked her in the eyes. “You helped him kill Badal.”
“You’re playing with fire,” Rinisa hissed as the song came to a close, their movements slowing in tandem with the music. “And you’ll get yourself burned.”
“Funny thing about near death experiences,” Jehan said conversationally, leading Rinisa into a final promenade around the dance floor. “They make you bolder than you ever thought you would be. I had an epiphany, back at the warehouse. Want to know what it was?”
Rinisa went still, and Jehan smiled. “I realized that the amount of fucks I give about you and your threats…wouldn’t fill a teaspoon. And if it’s the last thing I do on this planet, I’ll see to it that you spend the rest of your life in some dank prison cell in Naijan.”
He leaned forward, bringing his mouth close to her ear. “If Maganti doesn’t murder you first, that is.”
As the last strains of the song floated in the air, Jehan let go of Rinisa. A woman in a luxuriant silk dress walked up to him and asked for the next dance.
He stepped onto the dance floor once again, his new partner talking animatedly at his side. Over her shoulder, Jehan watched Rinisa make a dash for the exit.